Portal:Water/"Gasland," the New Silent Spring



Gasland is a 2010 movie directed by Josh Fox, which exposes the dangers of drilling for methane gas in the United States. The movie was a nominee for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards in 2011. Fox's production company, "The International WOW Company," describes the movie as follows: "The film is about the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. What is uncovered is truly shocking--water that can be lit on fire right out of the sink, chronically ill residents of drilling areas from disparate locations in the US all with the same mysterious symptoms, huge pools of toxic waste that kill cattle and vegetation well blowouts and huge gas explosions consistently covered up by state and federal regulatory agencies."

Robert Koehler of Variety referred to the film as “one of the most effective and expressive environmental films of recent years… "GasLand" may become to the dangers of natural gas drilling what Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was to DDT.” Bloomberg News critic Dave Shiflett wrote that Fox "may go down in history as the Paul Revere of fracking."

Immediately upon the film's release, Energy In Depth issued a paper claiming to "debunk" the film's documentary evidence. Kevin Grandia, former editor of DeSmogBlog, in an article written on the Huffington Post titled "Who are the spin doctors behind the attack on Gasland?," stated "[I]t looks like Gasland is starting to get under the skin of the oil and gas industry. I guess the dinosaurs in the dirty fuel lobby don't like videos of people who can light their tap water on fire after their wells are contaminated with methane gas." The article can be seen here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/who-are-the-spindoctors-b_b_621190.html.

Energy in Depth (EID) is a pro-oil-and-gas drilling industry front group formed by the American Petroleum Institute, the Petroleum Association of America and dozens of additional industry organizations for the purpose of denouncing the FRAC Act proposed by Colorado U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette to regulate underground fracking fluids. They have crafted an entire campaign to delegitimize Fox's film, coining itself "Debunking Gasland." Many Facebook and Google users have even reported "Debunking Gasland" ads popping up on those respective websites. That can be seen here: http://www.energyindepth.org/2010/06/debunking-gasland/

‎Josh Fox has responded to every claim in "Debunking Gasland" put forth by Energy In Depth in a piece titled "Affirming Gasland," which can be seen here: http://www.damascuscitizens.org/Affirming-GASLAND.pdf. The 41-page report was co-written with Weston Wilson of the Environmental Protection Agency, Professor Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University, and Barbara Arrindell of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, among others. The document addresses industry smear campaign talking points on a point by point basis. Steve Horn of the Center for Media and Democracy also wrote an article on the topic, titled, "Energy in Depth's Disinformation Freakshow," which can be seen here: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/07/9248/energy-depths-disinformation-freakshow.

After Josh Fox's film was nominated for the Academy Award, Energy in Depth went on the attack again, writing a press release titled, “This nomination is fitting, as the Oscars are aimed at praising pure entertainment.” The Guardian debunked the propaganda here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/21/oscar-buzz-gasland-engery-lobby

Gasland links:
 * http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
 * http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/GASLAND/238848283364?ref=ts
 * http://twitter.com/gaslandmovie

A video of an interview that took place with director Josh Fox on March 4, 2011 that took place on 'Democracy Now!' can be seen here: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/natural_gas_industry_attacks_oscar_nominated

Another film changing the terms of the debate on fracking for methane gas is called "Split Estate," a trailer of which can be seen here.